Category: Reviews

Nokia Lumia 800 Review

So here it is, the Nokia Lumia 800 – the “first real Windows Phone” phone made by Nokia. I’ve had virtually no experience with Windows Phone 7 before and was looking very much forward to the Lumia 800. Is WP7 able to impress me as much as Nokia …

Review – The Ericsson A2628 from Lekki

“Yeah, send it over, we’ll take a look”. ..that’s usually my response when we’re offered a phone to review. This time it was the guys at Lekki on the phone. They get “vintage” mobile phones and video games, get them working, in tip-top condition and then give them …

Samsung Galaxy Note Review

OK, this is a little big. Many moons ago we reviewed the Orange SPV M2000. We thought that was big. It’s not. Not when compared to this. The style and design is still there and it does look a lot like a larger version of the rather glorious …

T-Mobile Vivacity initial impressions.

Yesterday I got hold of the new T-Mobile Vivacity, which is a ZTE Crescent or Orange San Francisco in a different case. I thought I would give you a few first impressions and photos now and a slightly more in-depth review next week once I have really got …

Three WiFi Router Review

Being registered on the Three PR list means that I often get emails about new devices. Recently one device which took my fancy was the new WiFi Hub. Three have a massive share of the Mobile Broadband market with an award winning HSPA+ network in the process of …

Acer Iconia A100 – Review

We have recently received an Acer Iconia A100 and boy what a great device it is. So enough of the introduction, lets get down to the nitty gritty. Hardware The Acer Iconia has a 7″ Capacative screen, Android 3.2, Tegra 2 chipset, 8GB built in memory and a …

Android App Review – AVG Antivirus Free

So word on the street (and when I say street, I mean the good old information super-highway) is that viruses and malware are becoming quite a big threat for Android users, but that is a story for another post. I want to have a chat about one app …

Hands On – O2 BoostBox

A while back we talked about the impending trial from O2 around their femtocell technology – well the box finally arrived and I’m going to show a couple of pictures of the mythical beast. Firstly we’ll note that IT IS A TRIAL !… this is not for the …

A shooting Ray of light

There has been quite a lot of activity from the Sony Ericsson design team this year and the latest device to be brought forth from their creative minds is the Xperia Ray. This phone is not your usual fair from SE in that it does not fall into …

Nokia N9 review

The Nokia N9 is a weird beast. It runs the MeeGo Harmattan OS and has been released after a so-called elopocalypse when Nokia’s new CEO Stephen Elop controversially turned towards the Windows Phone platform, ditching both homegrown smartphone platforms – Symbian and Maemo/MeeGo – into gloom. The decision …

Review – HTC CR S490 Desktop Cradle for HTC Sensation / Sensation XE

This cradle device synchronises and charges the HTC Sensation / Sensation XE. Plonk the phone in and it’ll angle your phone at the right angle for watching videos, checking the weather or using the phone as a bedside alarm-clock. Drop the phone in while the special video button …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Windows Phone App – Red Bull TV

Red Bull TV is one of those apps that I am amazed does not appear on many other platforms (only WP7, iPhone and Ovi). It is a great way of watching videos from a variety of adrenalin fuelled sports. The marketplace says that it “brings a world of …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Windows Phone App – New group*

Windows Phone uses tiles for the home screen. You have no doubt seen what these look like. Grouping these tiles is time consuming having to move each tile around and grouping things together. I usually group apps such as web items, social apps, shopping apps or tools. With …

Cocktail Flow – Review

Cocktail Flow released for Android Phones and Tablets “Thanks to computer savvy alcoholics, there’s an app for that” – Big Bang Theory Cocktail Flow, the 2nd highest rated application on the Windows Phone Marketplace has been released for Android in both a phone and a tablet version. Mobile …

Blackberry Torch 9860 hands on and full review.

It was Friday when I received a rather large package addressed to me. Inside, the Blackberry Torch 9860. First up, I’ve got to admit that I absolutely love this handset. I have had plenty of time to have a little play and a fiddle with this device, so …

Review – Pocket Boom Portable Vibration Speaker

I love gadgets. Any kind of gadget pretty much, and I’m interested. So imagine when I saw the blurb for this little box of tricks..  “Turn anything into a speaker!” It works too.. which is pretty crazy. The quality of the sound depends what you’ve “turned into” a …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Windows Phone App – Photo Finish

There are thousands of photo editing apps in the world. Yes thousands! It leaves you wondering which to install. Some have way too many features and need a large user guide. Some just do not work or just make a mess of your photos. Some cost money. Some are free …

XXSIM Review

Today we’ve got one of those XXSIM roaming cards that we mentioned the other week. It’s delivered from Switzerland and carries a number from Estonia but it’ll let you receive calls for free in more than 120 countries and there’s no monthly fees. There’s simple roaming rates which …

HTC Sensation XE Review

We’ve been sent a quite a few headphones over recent weeks. Some noise-cancelling ones, some fashionables ones, some really big over-ear ones. All of them try and solve a long-term problem with most smartphones, and that’s the sound quality coming out of the 3.5mm audio port. Ever since …

HTC Radar Review

With a new version of Windows Phone now available in Mango (7.5), we are starting to see a new range of devices coming onto the market with lots of new features and the HTC Radar is one of them.  We were lucky enough to be at the launch …

Archos 80 G9 tablet review

Despite being declared gadget maniac, somehow I never really got into tablets. When the first iPad came out and whole hype began, I regarded it as overly-expensive gadget having virtually no practical use to me. Yet quite recently I’ve started changing my mind towards tablets. I thought they …

HTC Rezound Hands On.

First Thoughts and Specifications HTC and Verizon Wireless have jointly announced the HTC Rezound, an LTE-enabled smartphone with Beats Audio integration for the US market.HTC said that the new device delivers a powerful entertainment experience with audio and multimedia capabilities highlighted by a 4.3-inch 720p display. The new HTC …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Windows Phone App – Rowi

The one thing I have been struggling with the Windows Phone platform is the Twitter side of things.  I use Twitter quite a bit and moving from using Tweetdeck on Android to Windows phone was difficult. The official Twitter app is nice, but it cannot remember your place …

HTC Rhyme Review

Last week we took a quick look at the HTC Rhyme it’s got a strong, unibody design and comes with a headset, docking station and a charm device that will flash when you have a text or incoming call. The battery cover doubles as the antenna and the …

Siri – on the move.. part 2

After sorting out using Siri whilst walking..  See here.. I decided to turn my attention to the car.. Sure, there are various solutions that enable you to do simlar things in the car, but they’re all quite expensive. I wanted to use Siri, be able to do hands free …

Coolsmartphone Recommended App – Zinio

Can you read? Yes? Well in that case this app will be right up your street. Zinio is a magazine reader. It lets you read digital versions of popular magazines. My first thought when I saw this was that it was going to be expensive. Then I saw …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Windows Phone App – Fuse

With the recent Mango update to Windows Phone a lot more apps have appeared and a lot more developers have started making apps as well. I have recently been finding a lot of apps that do what I have been looking for. In my move from Android I …

iPad / iPhone App – The Weather Channel

One thing the App Store on iOS is not short of, is weather apps. As no doubt you’re aware, us brits are obsessed with the weather, so I’m certain at least some of you will find this app review useful. I say review, but it’s pretty hard to …

Reviewed – Nextivity Cel-Fi RS2 3G Signal Booster

How’s your mobile signal? Are you one of those people who have to stand next to a window to get a signal or a decent 3G connection? There’s a few solutions to your problems. You could use Signal Boost, but that’s only available on certain Orange handsets. There’s …

Coolsmartphone Recommended Android App – TexTab

Do you own a phone? Do you send text messages? Do you have a tablet? And lastly the curve ball, would you like to use your tablet to send text messages? Am I getting a little vague here? The other week I posted an article about the HP TouchPad, …

One night, in a hotel, we decided to Rhyme

I’m in Belfast, stuck in a hotel room with only a busted TV and an air-conditioning unit for company. Luckily I’ve brought with me the all-new HTC Rhyme with it’s strong unibody design. It comes with a docking station, some rather goodd headphones and a charm. The charm …

Enter the v-JAYS

We’ve been in the market for a new set of earphones recently and had the opportunity to review the v-JAYS Headphones over here at CoolSmartPhone.com. Here’s a link to a little bit of an unboxing for you …. v-JAYS unboxing (to download and view at your leisure) For those in the …

Do you wish your Android phone looked like a Windows Phone?

The other day we posted a couple of apps you could install on your Android device to make it look like iOS. Some people were surprised that some other people would actually want to do this. Yes making an Android phone look like that is a bit of step backwards, but how …

Waze app review

      Waze is a new take on the traditional sat nav apps we’re all familiar with. There are two major differences; one, the maps are not stored on the device (although recently visited areas are cached on the device I believe) and two, the incidents on …

iPhone 4S unboxing and 2nd glance

Literally in the door, on the table and under the knife … here’s an unboxing…   … and after the break we take a look at this …   and then a gander at Siri….    

iPhone 4S – First Thoughts

Got my iPhone 4S today. Walked straight into the Vodafone Store, no queues, had the device I wanted in stock. Thanks very much Vodafone Stockport. The new device looks very, very similar to the iPhone 4 other than a few cosmetic changes; The antenna – The 4S now has …

Dre Dre Beats Solo HD review

So O2 are going to be stocking the Beats Solo HD headphones very soon (along with rest of their range) and, as I have been using these headphones for the past 4 months now I thought I would share some opinions of the headphones themselves. The headphones were …

App Review – QR Pal

Last week QR Pay Ltd got in touch with me to let me know they had just released their new app ‘QR Pal’ and that it was a QR reader with a bit more functionality than the average application. Intrigued, I have spent the last week playing with …